My Road Trip to Audio Nirvana: Learning How to Listen

Thinking about my pursuit of audio nirvana over the years, I have to say it’s been somewhat akin to a long road trip. There have been some twists and turns, misdirection and detours along the way. Sometimes the highway has been crowded with components that tempted me to take a wrong turn. But like any good road trip, there have also been some surprises and learning experiences. I expect most of you can relate to this analogy.

This post is the first in a three-part series. Hopefully, knowing where I’ve traveled will be a way for you to connect with me as a reviewer, and it will help build credibility when you read what I write. So buckle up, and I hope you enjoy the ride as I tell you about my personal road trip to audio nirvana.

How I listen

In the winter issue of The Bongo Beat newsletter, I introduced myself. You can read that post here. Before I “come out of the blocks” with a component review, I first want to tell you a little bit about my journey to discover how I listen to music and how I determine what I’m looking for in my personal audio system. Like a good road trip, this exploration had some surprises that shaped both my thinking and the way I listen.

I would describe myself as an emotional listener. When the system sounds right, you will find me air conducting, toe-tapping, and frankly, fully emotionally invested in the music. There have been times when I have gotten to the end of a performance and had to turn the system off and then just sit in silence and savor that musical experience. My heart may be racing or there may be a tear in my eye. These are the moments I seek as an audio hobbyist, and it is what has hooked me on this hobby for over 40 years.

To evaluate or to enjoy…..that is the question

 “I think that violin is speaking to me.” A friend turned to me and uttered these words at one of our recent listening sessions. This seemly innocent phrase got me to thinking.

Here is a person I am guiding toward audio nirvana. In these eight words, he stated the elusive goal of every true music lover. The emotion of the artist had captured him. He didn’t say anything about midrange blooming, rounded bass, transparency or etched detail…blah..blah..blah.  It was a simple comment on his state of mind. Through the audio system, the artist had reached out and touched him. There is no better compliment that can be given to one’s enjoyment of audio reproduction.

Following the right path

In this first post, I want to take a moment to make sure we audiophiles are oriented to achieving this sometimes elusive and emotionally perceptive state of mind where the artist and the music can speak to us and move us emotionally—or audio nirvana.

We all make choices on which path in life to take. Each leads to a different destination. For the audio enthusiast, there is no One Way sign on the path or methodology to achieve audio nirvana.  Frankly, one person’s musical nirvana may be another’s audio yawn. This is an intensely personal hobby, and everyone has a different “on” button. 

Many times you are way down the wrong path before you realize it. You get obsessed with searching for a better lower midrange or you are in intense pursuit of more transparency and detail in the upper frequencies. Maybe you think an interconnect change or a power cord could be the answer. All the time that you are focusing on that one seemly important sonic segment of sound at the expense of the overall musical experience.

One tell-tale sign that you are traveling a futile path is when you have someone over to listen to your system and you prepare them by saying something like, “ Listen to how clear the trumpet is or how organic and rich the lower midrange is.”  Then, my friend, you may be careening down the audio path of confusion or frustration.   

Getting off of a futile path

At some point, all of us fall into the trap of following the wrong path, but I was saved by reading one article that changed my entire perspective and methodology. It defined my search for emotionally satisfying musical reproduction. After reading it, I was able to make much better and more consistent decisions about products and get off of the dreaded audiophile product merry go round we’ve all ridden at some point in this hobby.

I still have a wrinkled, yellowed copy of that useful article posted in my listening room. I read it once or twice a year just to keep me from drifting offline. I’ll share it with you in the hope that it can help reorient anyone lost on the audiophile merry go round and lead them to find the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow that is audio nirvana.

I’m referring to an article written by the Linn Co. that used to be called “Listening to the Tune.”  It’s a great title. The thrust of the article is the premise that there is no way for most of us to know what the sonic content of the recording is. We must make assumptions about the amount of bass or where the vocalist is standing, and so on. The article asks, “How can we know how loud the little tinkle of the triangle is?”

I guess the people that sit at the recording console and mix the music we listen to have the upper hand in this example because they have a much better idea of what the music really sounds like. The rest of us are left to make assumptions.

The Linn article points out that “breaking the signal down into its component parts, i.e. bass, midrange, and highs, rarely works because you just end up making judgments based on quantity rather than quality.”

How true that is. The article asserts that the only assumption we can make for certain is that there are musicians on the recording creating music. Therefore, if we listen for how the music touches us, we would be better off than listening for whether the vocalist is one foot left of center or two feet left of center. Rather than evaluating the hi-fi, evaluate the performance of the musicians.

The Linn point of view concludes that, when evaluating an interconnect, power cable, DAC, or speaker, etc. the one that touches you musically is the more correct piece. This may take a while for you to be comfortable with.  Ultimately I have found it to be a lighthouse in the fog of audio evaluations. If you find yourself going around in circles trying to put your system together, Linn’s advice should help. It certainly got me off the merry go round and allowed me to pursue a musically satisfying path. I hope, when you sit down soon to enjoy your system, the “violin speaks to you.” My hope is that this article is as helpful to you as it was and still is to me.

But wait … there is also an analytical component to my listening.

I’ll explain that in Part 2…